Saturday, December 13, 2014

Genetics testing

Several updates for our precious boy. I was debating whether to update because sometimes I feel like it's odd sharing so much of our journey over the internet. I do hope it would encourage others or perhaps help someone who may be seeking answers. We had an appointment yesterday with the geneticist. I guess I should have paid more attention in Biology class in college because there is so much that is involved with DNA. The doctor basically said they test for over one million things when testing DNA and closer to two million. There is so much out there they still do not know. They are "mapping" new things for DNA all the time. It's amazing how complex God made our bodies. They still are testing which chromosome abnormalities cause Autism. Currently they only know of about 46, which is very small out of millions.

We discovered that John is missing part of his chromosome 2 which may be the reasoning behind his Autism. If he was missing more pieces of the strand it would have caused a more severe disability. The doctor was very encouraging and told us to stay away from anyone who told me my son couldn't learn or do anything.

The doctor prescribed John a vitamin also to help with making fatty acids for the brain. We will try this for a few months and see how he does. Also, good news, we are in the process for starting ABA therapy. We are on a waiting list but that is at least an improvement since we were denied the first time. John is doing great in speech therapy but still has some struggles with his occupational therapy.